Metaco partners with IBM for secure digital asset orchestration system

Metaco will use IBM Cloud to provide robust security-critical technology for institutional investors entering the digital asset space.

Digital asset security infrastructure outfit Metaco has partnered with tech conglomerate IBM to utilize the latter’s cloud platform for enterprise-grade digital asset custody solutions.

According to a press statement issued on Thursday, Metaco will leverage IBM Cloud and IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services for its digital asset orchestration system.

The goal of the partnership is to provide adequate digital asset custodial services for banks and other highly regulated financial services firms looking to participate in the digital asset ecosystem across use cases like tokenization, custody, and transaction management among others.

As part of the announcement, Metaco will reportedly utilize IBM’s confidential computing and “Keep Your Own Key”, or KYOK, encryption to ensure that the firm’s clients retain sole access to their private keys. The press statement also revealed that clients will be able to run the asset orchestration system on-site or on the cloud or via a hybrid cloud environment.

For Metaco, robust security-critical protocols like KYOK are necessary to protect client information while mitigating the risks posed by hackers.

Commenting on the IBM collaboration, Metaco CEO Adrien Treccani remarked that the collaboration will enable the company deliver greater levels of security for their clients as they create products and services in the digital asset space.

In a conversation with Cointelegraph, Seamus Donoghue, vice president of  strategic alliances at Metaco highlighted the ways in which the digital asset orchestration system will help banks and other financial services firms comply with regulatory requirements, stating:

“The fiduciary obligations of asset managers require them to externalise custody to regulated custodians. Our multi-custodian solution enables them - with a single integration into their core infrastructure - to seamlessly manage and diversify risk across multiple custodians all under a holistic risk and control framework.”

According to Donoghue, the company's offering also provides the added advantage of efficient transfers of digital assets from secure lockups. "The orchestration can be parameterized to leverage trusted address books and the secure workflow automation to facilitate instant but secure movements as required. In this manner, a firm can be confident that its assets are always safe but can respond to rapidly moving markets," the Metaco executive added to Cointelegraph.

Back in December 2020, Donoghue remarked that regulatory clarity for cryptocurrencies was enabling greater institutional involvement in the asset space.

Indeed, 2020 saw significant inroads being made by banks and other financial services firms into cryptocurrencies especially in the area of custody.